Tuesday, October 19, 2010

"It's great for a lot of reasons," Sparano said. "Here's a great example of me being able to point to and saying there's a guy right there that, you're an undrafted free agent and here's a guy that we rewarded; he deserves it."

Bess certainly has outplayed his status as a league-minimum guy and now ranks 37th in average salary. He's among the highest-paid slot receivers, behind Michael Crabtree ($5.69 million), Devin Hester ($5.49 million), Wes Welker ($4.21 million), Justin Gage ($3.5 million) and Roscoe Parrish ($3.34 million). Of course, the term "slot receiver" is more dependent on the formation than the player.

In addition to his usual $470,000 base salary for this season, Bess received a $3 million signing bonus. His base salaries for coming years will be $1.01 million, $2.23 million and $2.63 million.

Bess' teammate Ikaika Alama-Francis talked to The Finsiders about playing against his father's former team (Green Bay), about trying to regain the weight he lost when he was sick, and facing Ben Roethlisberger next.

For obvious reasons, the 49ers haven't shared many fourth-quarter laughs this season. But Sopoaga's appearance provided some levity late Sunday afternoon. The Niners ran the same play -- 30 Ice, a nod to his nickname -- when Sopoaga was on the field.

"They were just laughing," Sopoaga said. "They were like 'I can't believe you're in this huddle.' I was like 'Hey, it's just like practice.'"

Sopoaga's appearance, however, was no joke. He's been moonlighting with the offense for the past three weeks. It was Mike Singletary's idea to put Sopoaga at fullback and he approached then offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye with the idea earlier in the season.

It's safe to say, Sopoaga has embraced the role. Next, he'd like to embrace the football.

"I've been wanting to run the ball so bad," he said. "But I've got to be smart. Pay attention to what part of the job they offered me to do on the field. But I know ... down the line my arms will be carrying the ball soon. I cross my fingers."

Reagan Mauia was wired for the Cardinals' victory over the Saints on October 10th, and AZCardinals.com has the video.

As with his predecessor, Lonie Paxton, there has been next-to-no commotion since Ingram’s arrival, a fact that is the biggest complement that can be paid to a man in his line of work.

After delivering the game-winning kick in Sunday’s 23-20 overtime victory over Baltimore, Stephen Gostkowski was ushered into an interview room at Gillette Stadium to address reporters. Others clamored around Zoltan Mesko after he delivered a 65-yard punt to get his team out of trouble earlier in OT.

There were no such demands placed on Ingram, who delivered them the ball. Which was no doubt fine with him.

But after receiver Rob Bagg suffered what is likely a season-ending knee injury during Sunday's 34-26 loss to the Calgary Stampeders, Grice-Mullen made a return to the offence and was running routes with the starting unit.

"I like to think that I'm one of the biggest team guys ever, so whatever the coaches ask of me, I'm willing to do," Grice-Mullen said. "Whether they want me out there for a couple of snaps or for the whole game, or to just return punts or kicks, I'll do it."